Post navigation

Three Tips for Dealing with the Name-Dropper

Philosophy majors can be incredibly obnoxious. I should know. I was one.

Philosophy is a tool. Like any tool, it can be used for good or for evil. In the hands of a surgeon, a scalpel can be used to save a life. In the hands of a murderer, the same scalpel can be used to end a life.

Philosophy can be used to help people to believe true things. Not all of the topics that philosophers are interested in are terribly practical, but some of them have a significant effect on how we should live our lives. To give just a couple of examples, philosophy can help us come to more reasonable beliefs about whether God exists or not and what he is like if he does. Philosophy can also help us to understand ethics, how we should treat each other.

Unfortunately, philosophy can also be used to deceive people. If you study ideas enough, you can become very adept at bluffing. One of the particularly annoying ways that philosophy majors bluff is name-dropping philosophers they’ve read, sometimes subtly (but usually not).

For clarity, name-dropping is mentioning the names of famous people you know with the intention of impressing others. It isn’t name-dropping to quote something from someone and appropriately credit them.

Name-dropping can be frustrating and intimidating to some pro-life students, so here are my three suggestions for how to deal with name-droppers.

1: Remind yourself that philosophers are very, very often wrong.

René Descartes

Descartes, one of the name-dropper’s favorite people to quote, said it best:

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.

(That isn’t more true because someone named Descartes said it, it’s just so delightfully phrased that I couldn’t resist.)

One can usually find some philosopher to appeal to in order to defend any idea. I know it’s easier said than done, but choose to not let yourself be intimidated. Just because someone with a fancy name and fancy pants said it, that doesn’t make it true. [Tweet that]

2: Remind yourself that you aren’t ignorant just because you haven’t read whoever they mentioned.

The name-dropper is like a peacock. He likes to show off. He likes to make himself look smart.

No one has read everything, therefore it doesn’t make you stupid to have not read whatever they’re talking about, even though the especially rude name-dropper might imply that it does.

3: Very politely ask the name-dropper to explain what the philosopher’s argument is.

If it helps you, pretend they aren’t talking about Hegel, pretend they’re talking about some idea their neighbor Bob had. If someone said their neighbor Bob had a cool, interesting thought about something, you wouldn’t just take Bob’s word for it. Make the argument stand on its own merits. It doesn’t matter who the person is. It matters what their argument is. If the name-dropper wants to mention an argument from some other person, that’s fine, but it’s their responsibility to explain what makes the argument persuasive.

The name-dropper has exactly as much power to intimidate you as you give them. If they said, “Hey, you should be afraid of me. I’m REALLLY smart and I’ve read SOOOOO many books,” that would just make you chuckle. That’s all the name-dropper is doing. So have a chuckle, remind yourself that there are lots of silly philosophers and that no one has read everything, and make them give you an argument.

Oh, and one more thing…

Once or twice a year I hear some name-dropper say that the fetus isn’t a person because it can’t think and Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” If you hear this, you can politely tell them that they seem to have not read Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy.

Descartes wasn’t saying that he’s a person because he can think. He was saying that he is positive that he exists because he is thinking. Descartes was trying to get rid of all of his false beliefs and looking for beliefs that could not be doubted. It’s an epistemological statement, not an ethical one.

The preceding post is the property of Timothy Brahm (apart from quotations, which are the property of their respective owners, and works of art as credited; images are often freely available to the public,) and should not be reproduced in part or in whole without the expressed consent of the author. All content on this site is the property of Josh Brahm unless the post was written by a co-blogger or guest, and the content is made available for individual and personal usage. If you cite from these documents, whether for personal or professional purposes, please give appropriate citation with both the name of the author (Timothy Brahm) and a link to the original URL. If you’d like to repost a post, you may do so, provided you show only the first paragraph on your own site and link to the original post for the rest. You must also appropriately cite the post as noted above. This blog is protected by Creative Commons licensing. By viewing any part of this site, you are agreeing to this usage policy.

Director of Training

Timothy Brahm is the Director of Training at Equal Rights Institute. He is interested in helping pro-life and pro-choice people to have better dialogues about abortion through 1) taking care to understand what the other person means, 2) using more carefully-constructed arguments, and 3) treating each other with care and respect. He graduated from Biola University with a B.A. in philosophy and is a perpetual member of the Torrey Honors Institute.

Post navigation

Please note: The goal of the comments section on this blog is simply and unambiguously to promote productive dialogue. We reserve the right to delete comments that are snarky, disrespectful, flagrantly uncharitable, offensive, or off-topic. If in doubt, read our Comments Policy.

SUBSCRIBE

Subscribe to our email list for a free gift, a 52-minute roundtable discussion among our staff bringing clarity to this question:

GET THE EQUIPPED FOR LIFE COURSE

We spent years carefully testing arguments against abortion in thousands of conversations all over the country. We have learned which arguments are the most persuasive to today’s pro-choice advocates. We have learned how to communicate them in ways that they find compelling.

Josh has publicly debated leaders from Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), Georgians for Choice, and one of the leading abortion facilities in Atlanta.

He has been happily married to his wife Hannah for ten years. They have three sons, Noah, William, and Eli. They live near Charlotte, North Carolina.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

This blog is focused on helping pro-life people be “more persuasive and less weird” when they communicate with pro-choice people. We also write about relational apologetics, because we believe that some pro-choice people will not change their mind after a Facebook debate or a conversation on a college campus; they’ll only change their mind because their friend persuaded them.

If you are pro-life and want practical tips for having effective dialogues with pro-choice people, this blog is for you. If you’re pro-choice and you want to explore pro-life ideas without being called names or having your arguments simplified, you will enjoy this blog, as many other pro-choice people do. Check out our top posts >>

SPEAKING

Josh Brahm speaks on topics related to helping pro-life people have better conversations with pro-choice people. These talks include responding to specific pro-choice arguments as well as talks on relational apologetics. Check his availability here >>